Being Safe
by Linqui
Summary: Sunil has been having some strange feelings when being around Vinnie lately. He is too afraid of the prospect of what they could mean, and thus decides to run away, so that he doesn't have to talk to Vinnie again. - This started off as a shipping story, but then turned into something else entirely. I'll let you have the surprise!


No... This couldn't be happening... He had to get away, had to make sure that Vinnie would not find him, because if he did...

"Oh, I don't want to imagine the things that could happen then!"

He carefully walked to the exit of the Littlest Pet Shop's daycamp area, looking back nervously to make sure none of the other pets was watching him. Finally he got out, and he sighed in relief, but then he realized that he didn't actually know what to do next.

If only this thing with Vinnie hadn't happened... Sunil and Vinnie had been best friends for like ever (in reality only since they met for the first time in the Littlest Pet Shop), but then recently something strange had happened to the mongoose when he hung out with his green, scaly pal, he had felt in a way around him that he'd never done before. It had been very weird, although hanging out with Vinnie was usually his most favorite thing to do, at that time he had felt a great desire to get away and hide so that Vinnie would not find him. He believed that Vinnie had not noticed at that time when he tried to act like everything was as it usually was, and it had been a great relief to finally get away, but the confusion and the worries about why all of his had happened remained.

Sunil now stood somewhere between the daycamp's entrance and the actual entrance of the Littlest Pet Shop, all alone, thinking quietly to himself. If he went back to where he had just escaped from, everything would probably go back to normal for a while, but eventually he would have to face Vinnie again. That would usually be the most natural thing in the world for him, but somehow, right now, it just wasn't. And somehow, Sunil wasn't sure that it would ever be that way again - something had changed, and he was scared of what this would mean for them in the future, and what Vinnie would think if he found out about all of this.

"No," he said to himself, "I have to get away. I... oh, I don't want to think about what all of this means... Maybe I'll never get to see all of my friends again... And Vinnie... Oh Vinnie, why do you do this to me? But I have to do it... I don't think I could bear what would happen if they... if he... found out about this."

He forced himself to move onward, watching out not to be seen by Mrs. Twombley, Blythe or any of the customers. He positioned himself next to the entrance door; he would wait here until the next customer came in and sneak himself out in time. Where he would go, he didn't know - probably to the park, since that was, besides the pet shop, the place he already knew the best - and among many other things, he was scared of the unknown. Luckily the park was big, so he would probably find a place to hide in there, and then he could only hope that the others would not find him.

Just a minute having passed, Sunil was already running outside through the streets of Downtown City, speeding up his pace so that none of the humans would have a chance to grab him if they spotted him. He soon got tired of running, but he forced himself to keep going onwards; soon, already at the end of his strength, he finally reached the park's entrance. He stopped running, and, exhaustedly, walked through the open door and onto the grass, and here, feeling a bit more safe as there were almost no humans around at this rather late time of day, he found that simply walking like this, not being aware of a certain destination just yet, he felt that he had a lot more room now to simply think.

It was all completely crazy that this was happening, was the first thing he thought. All of this was because of some small feelings that he had felt around Vinnie, feelings that might have disappeared if he had just stayed where he was and tried to get around with them. But somewhere, he knew that it wouldn't have been as easy, at least if the suspicion he had about them was correct.

With what Sunil had done just now, it would be crazy for him to assume that it weren't - if he was wrong about what his feelings meant, all of this would have been completely pointless. But that also got him to realize that this suspicion had a very high chance of being correct - would he really have done all this if there had been the possibility that it weren't? "Well, yes," he answered himself, "I always get scared about the smallest things, and I don't think I could have even kept myself from running away because of my fear. So maybe this really is all pointless. Maybe I just had a bad day or something, maybe this thing with Vinnie was nothing unusual after all, and I'm just getting all scared over nothing like I usually do..."

Sunil stopped walking suddenly, and after looking around to see if he was safe, he let himself plummet on the grassy ground. There were bushes to the left and right of him, but he still felt open and insecure where he was, so he crawled more to the left, sitting down with his back leaning against the leaves, letting half of his body sink in the foliage and using his hands to move some of the leaves to the left and right of him, covering the other half of it.

Sunil's body was fully hidden with leaves now, and it was near impossible that anyone would come to look for him here. But even with this new sense of protection gained, he could still feel tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

Sunil didn't know for how long he had been running, and fleeing through the park until he reached his little hideout place, but he could imagine that the other pets and Blythe were probably already wondering where he had gone. Once they realized they couldn't find him in the daycamp, they would start looking for him in the entrance area, and then in Blythe's room, and if they couldn't find him there either, they would quickly become very worried. But there was no way back now, if he tried to return to them, Sunil would have no idea how he could explain to them what happened, so the only thing he could do was stay here, wrapped up in the comforting leaves that made him feel a little like even though he had just said his goodbye to everything and everyone he knew, he was not completely alone. He thought that probably no one of the other pets would be able to understand how such simple things as leaves could give him this sense of comfort.

Right now, even Sunil himself felt that he didn't understand it. He had left everything behind, he was too afraid to go back; he was sitting here with no access to food, completely isolated, with no idea what to do and where to go next. And yet, he thought that in this situation, he felt a surprisingly little amount of fear. The leaves were protecting him from the world out there, and there was nothing left for him to do - he realized now that he felt very exhausted from his escape, and the only thing he wanted to do right now was to sleep. It was absurd to him, he should be worried to death about what would happen next, blame himself for what he had done and feel completely hopeless. But he didn't want to think anymore. He didn't even want to feel anymore, he thought tiredly. All he wanted to do was let himself fall into the leaves, close his eyes, and leave all of his worries behind. And just like that, it was exactly what he did. If he had full access to his mind now, he would probably scold himself for how he could do something like this, and how he didn't seem to care about his friends as much as he should. But instead, he felt himself relax. He felt as if his mind was let go of, finally not bothering him anymore with its endless queue of fears and worries. He just lay there, feeling more and more calm, even peaceful, in this situation that if it could, would scream to do anything but what Sunil did. But he did not notice this, he just lay there, a gentle smile forming on his face, and finally, for the first time in forever, he was safe.

* * *

><p>Author's note:<br>Yeah... this seems to be what happens if I just let myself write, the words  
>just seem to go in the direction that fits my own feelings the most. I<br>originally wanted to write a story about Vinnil, but instead I wrote a story  
>about letting go. This story describes a lot of the things that have been<br>happening in my own life lately (on a metaphorical level, I didn't run away  
>from anywhere). You may think it's unfinished, but I like this open ending, it<br>describes how in life you can never know what may happen, but you can know that  
>no matter what happens, you will always be guarded and safe. Anyway, I don't<br>know if this is the right place to post a story like this, but maybe there is  
>one person in the world who can relate to it, and that would already make it<br>worth it.


End file.
